Thursday, June 28, 2012

I Love Shopping in Chiang Mai

Our agent emailed to tell us our Wesco Fabrics’ container was on the water. It takes time for suppliers to finish our orders, get the products picked up, packaged, containerized, shipped by sea to LA, and then trucked to our Denver warehouse. This one seemed to take longer than usual. March was our 15th trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand to hunt for exotic and unique furniture & accessories. The adventure begins with companies we trust and have used for years and always ends with new discoveries.

This company makes modern wood furniture from giant pieces of wood from fallen trees in Laos & Burma.

Our agent drove us down a long dusty road and at the end was this amazingly modern showroom. They manufacture the coolest accessories!

The “Saturday Walking Market” on Wua Lai Road is full of unique booths selling everything from jewelry to snake oil.

Marla loves these hand-made thong slippers.

While on a small lane off the main market all the lights went out. We carefully walked to the end of the road and the lights finally came back on highlighting the beautiful Wat Sri Supan temple.

The giant “Sunday Walking Market” in old Chiang Mai is a must visit. On the way to the market we walked down Tha Phae Road and visited Wat Buppharam temple. A lady came up to Marla on the temple grounds and asked her to buy a small bird. She released it from its woven cage in an act of “making merit” or Tham Bun.

A temple chedi rises towards the sky.

We walked past hundreds of interesting stalls selling an amazing array of items including beautifully made hilltribe textiles. Each visit to the Sunday Market includes a visit to the mesmerizing Wat Phan On temple. Many food sellers and vendors are found throughout the grounds. The golden chedi glistens in the late afternoon light as young devotees light incense.

I have purchased from this seller of antiques for years. This gilt bronze Burmese Nat, or mythical spirit, caught my eye.

With all of our temple visits I was really in the hunt for antiques from old temples. This panel is from an ancient Thai wat made with glass over 200 years old! I can’t bring myself to sell it. I may have to have this one myself

***Our containers from Thailand and Bali will arrive at our Wesco Fabrics Denver warehouse in July. We will have images, descriptions, and pricing of everything on our website once they are unpacked and cleaned up from their long journey across the ocean. We can ship furniture & accessories anywhere in the U.S.